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An Examination of Employee Turnover and Retention Initiatives in the Homecare Industry

Conway, Derek (2021) An Examination of Employee Turnover and Retention Initiatives in the Homecare Industry. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Homecare organisations in Ireland are going through a difficult phase due to the increase in demand for their services and a lack of interested applicants for roles of healthcare assistants, meaning they can’t capitalise on opportunities to increase revenue. There are a number of reasons this is the case including government policies towards the delivery of homecare, the lack of eligible candidates, and the inability to implement Employee Retention strategies to an extent that employer retains its employees at a rate that would allow them to deliver care safely.

Employee retention is the term used to measure the rate at which an organisation can keep their human capital employed for (CIPD, 2021). A successful retention strategy, in theory, will aid organisations increase the length of service of their employees, and further allow the organisation to focus corporate goals.

In the homecare sector, organisations have traditionally invested time and money to understand what its clients need in order to create and successfully deliver services and products to the market. Once understood, organisations and their agents must then attract, recruit, train and retain employees to deliver these services and products.

Prior to 2020, Ireland had seen record low levels of unemployment in Ireland (CSO, 2021), as well as an increase in demand for a dwindling pool of candidates, meaning a supply issue was create, which made a “buyers’ market” for job hunters, which meant organisations needed to work harder and leaders in the organisation needed to learn how to keep employees.

This significant shift in the employment market created a gap for motivated and skilled health care assistants, whereas previously with a limited number of competitors, the main operators could easily recruit and train employees, retention was not an issue. As other entrepreneurs identified the homecare industry as a growth market, two of Porters’ forces come in to play- The number and power of a company's competitive rivals and potential new market entrants, (Porter, 1979) more competition came in to play and the pool of eligible candidates had more options available to them.

Now organisations and leaders must shift focus and investment to better understand what their team members need from their employer in order to remain satisfied in their role, in order to continue to deliver care safely.

This research paper will explore the reasons employees have left their employers in the homecare sector and use this to help identify employee retention initiatives in the homecare sector and propose practicable improvements.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management > Employee Retention
R Medicine > Healthcare Industry
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Issues of Labour and Work > Staff Turnover
Divisions: School of Business > Master of Business Administration
Depositing User: Clara Chan
Date Deposited: 28 Jan 2022 12:17
Last Modified: 28 Jan 2022 12:17
URI: https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/5365

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